December 1, 2005.
Update on class in ID mythology at UK:
Class
cancelled. It seems that Paul Mirecki, the head of the Religious
Studies Department, had designed the class primarily to insult "fundies,"
as he referred to fundamentalist Christians in an e-mail.

"This will be a nice slap in their big fat face by
teaching it as a religious studies class under the category mythology,"
Mirecki wrote. KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway called Mirecki's words
"repugnant and vile." Twenty-five students had signed up for the course.

Mirecki, who is the faculty adviser to the KU
Society of Open-Minded Atheists and Agnostics, also made sarcastic
comments about conservative Jews and Catholics. He apologized and asked
forgiveness from those he might have offended. Pat Robertson has asked for
Mirecki's head and has warned Kansas that if anything bad happens there,
they can blame Mirecki for bringing down the wrath of God upon them.

November 22, 2005.
"Intelligent Design, Creationism and other Religious Mythologies" is the
title of a new course to be offered by the religious studies department at
the
University of Kansas next term. The course is in response to the
recent vote by the Kansas state Board of Education, which adopted new
science teaching standards that treat evolution as a flawed theory and
intelligent design as an alternative flaw.

November 5, 2005. There are very few certainties in
this life but one of them seems to be that if the government calls a law
The Clean Air Act the air will probably get dirtier. Anything called The
Tort Reform Act or Class Action Fairness Act is unlikely to have any
interest in tort reform and is probably designed to protect corporations
from being sued while protecting the right of corporations to sue as they
see fit.*
So, what are we to make of a bill called
The Fairness
in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act (the FAIR Act--isn't that clever?)?
The bill is sponsored by Patrick Leahy, the highest ranking Democrat in
the Senate, and Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter. Is this
bill just a fancy way of pretending to help the victims of years of abuse
by mining companies while actually making sure that those companies don't
get sued too badly for all their wrongdoing? Many people in Libby,
Montana, seem to think so.

The Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act
establishes a $140 billion privately financed trust fund that would
compensate asbestos claimants who agree to give up their right to sue.
That sounds like a lot of money, but the extent of the asbestos poisoning
is so vast that even that huge amount wouldn't begin to pay for the damage
that has been done over the past forty years. The
bill also caps liability for companies that made or sold products
containing asbestos. Companies routinely declare bankruptcy to avoid
having to pay out huge settlements because of lawsuits. To avoid paying
out on asbestos claims scores of U.S. companies have filed for bankruptcy.*
More than 250,000 asbestos-related suits have been filed against just one
company, W. R. Grace & Co.*
The company has closed its mine in Libby and has declared bankruptcy,
restructured itself, and continues to make about $1.4 billion in sales per
year.

Last February, W.R. Grace & Co. and seven current or
former executives were indicted in federal court in Missoula, Montana, for
breaking environmental laws and conspiring to cover up what the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has described as the biggest
environmental disaster to human health it has ever faced.

W.R. Grace and its executives, as far back as the
1970's, attempted to hide the fact that toxic asbestos was present in
vermiculite products at the company's Libby, Montana plant. The grand jury
charged the defendants with conspiring to conceal information about the
hazardous nature of the company's asbestos contaminated vermiculite
products, obstructing the government's clean-up efforts, and wire fraud.
To date, according to the indictment, approximately 1,200 residents [out
of a population of about 3,000] of
Libby have been identified as suffering from some kind of asbestos-related
abnormality.

A
mortality review, which compared death rates for residents of the
Libby area with those in Montana and the United States for selected
diseases associated with exposure to asbestos found that for the 20-year
period examined (1979-1998) mortality from asbestosis was approximately
40 times higher than the rest of Montana and 60 times higher than the rest
of the United States.* Another report claims that asbestos from the
now-closed vermiculite mine on a mountain near Libby has killed 192 people
and left at least 375 with fatal diseases. Thousands more who live or grew
up in Libby are expected to die from asbestos-related diseases in the
coming decades.*
The asbestos fibers contaminated not only workers at the mine, but also
their families when they brought home the asbestos fibers on their
clothing and in their hair. Even local ball fields and an athletic track
were contaminated from fallout and fill.

Grace shipped its asbestos contaminated vermiculite,
called Zonolite® Attic Insulation, to 42 states. The product is in the walls
and attics of millions of American homes. (Note: not all vermiculite is
contaminated with asbestos.*)
Our government has responded by protecting the ones who made and shipped the
Zonolite® when it should be trying to protect the millions of people who are
affected by it every day: firefighters, plumbers, construction workers doing
remodels or demolition, and so on, not to mention all the people living in
those homes. Our government won't even spend a few bucks to notify us of the
problem. The EPA had planned to put notices in hardware stores across the
country and have representatives go on talk shows to spread the word about
the potential dangers of Zonolite. They've been ordered to do no more than
post some information on their website. To find out about the asbestos
danger, we have to see a movie with John Travolta ("A Civil Action"), read a
newspaper,
watch "Nightline",
stumble upon some blogger's site,
or go to the
EPA's web page on vermiculite. The worst thing you can do if you suspect
you have Zonolite insulation is to try to remove it yourself. To do so could
be hazardous to your health. The EPA recommends the following:

If possible, leave the insulation undisturbed.
Asbestos fibers will not become airborne if the insulation is well
contained. If the vermiculite is sealed behind wallboards and floorboards
or is isolated in an attic that is vented outside, the best approach to
avoid exposure to asbestos is to keep the vermiculite in place. If a
ventilation system within the attic disturbs the material, it may be
appropriate to have the air tested in your home.

Until there are better methods to analyze for
asbestos in vermiculite, and to know what that means in terms of risk, it
is best to assume the material may contain asbestos. If you decide to
remove the vermiculite home insulation, use accredited, licensed asbestos
removal professionals. Use of a "negative pressure enclosure" technique
will prevent asbestos fibers and dust from escaping from the attic into
the rest of the home. Do not attempt to do this yourself. You could
spread asbestos fibers throughout your home, putting you and your family
at risk of inhaling asbestos fibers. (EPA)

Last June President Bush responded by appointing lawyer and
engineer Granta Y. Nakayama as head of the Office of Enforcement and
Compliance Assurance (OECA), the enforcement division of the EPA. At the
time of his appointment, Nakayama was serving as a "Partner for
Environmental Law and Product Safety" at Kirkland & Ellis, a law firm in
Washington, DC, that is representing Grace in its troubles with the federal
government. The Senate confirmed Nakayama on July 29, 2005. Nakayama's law
firm helped Grace file for bankruptcy and restructure so it could
continue in business.

In January, in his state of the union address, Bush
forewarned us: "Justice is distorted, and our economy is held back by
irresponsible class-actions and frivolous asbestos claims -- and I urge
Congress to pass legal reforms this year." Is a translation needed?

The "Nightline" report was especially disturbing. The
evidence is strong that the executives at Grace knew about the dangers of
their product as far back as the 1960s, even before they bought the
vermiculite mine in Libby. They suppressed evidence not only
about their product but about the health of their employees. For more than
thirty years they knowingly sent out a dangerous product that would be used in
somewhere between 15 and 30
million homes across America. True patriots, these fellows. And true
patriots the politicians who are stepping in the protect such kinds from
suffering serious financial consequences for their assaultsecret
attack upon millions of
Americans.

Junk Science??? (Grace is a major contributor to the "sound science"
coalition, a group of politicians who use clever tactics to protect
companies who have very little interest in protecting the environment or
the health of the public. Other supporters include Phillip Morris, 3M,
Amoco, Chevron, Dow Chemical, Exxon, General Motors, and Occidental
Petroleum. See Chris Mooney's
The Republican War on Science for more on this "sound science"
doublespeak.

update: May 9, 2009.W.R. Grace acquitted in Montana
asbestos case ("A jury Friday acquitted W.R.
Grace & Company and three of its former executives of having knowingly
exposed mine workers and residents of Libby, Montana, to
asbestos....Federal prosecutors had accused the mining company and its
executives of exposing Libby's 100,000 residents to asbestos for decades,
resulting in more than 200 deaths and 1,000 illnesses. The product covered
patches of grass, dusted the tops of cars and drifted through the air in a
hazy smoke that became a part of residents' daily lives ." The indictment
said W.R. Grace tried to "defraud the United States and others by
impairing, impeding, and frustrating" the Environmental Protection Agency
and other government agencies once they launched an investigation in
1999.)

update: June 21, 2009. Asbestos emergency declared in Libby,
Montana ("The EPA declared a public health
emergency in Libby, Mont., after decades of asbestos-related diseases and
deaths in the tiny community. Hundreds of people there have died and
thousands have been sickened by a poisonous legacy of mining. W.R. Grace
& Co. and its officials were acquitted in May of charges that
officials knowingly concealed the dangers of mining asbestos-contaminated
vermiculite. The company supplied more than 70% of U.S. vermiculite, a
mineral used for insulation, from 1919 to 1990.")

update:
September 25, 2009.
Mesothelioma Risk Reduction: Asbestos Cleanup Underway at
Montana Golf Course "Work crews garbed in white protective
suits and filtered breathing masks are digging up substantial
amounts of topsoil polluted with the mineral vermiculite from
part of a golf course near the small town of Libby, Montana.
While the older portion of the course is undergoing an extensive
decontamination operation, investigators have not detected any
problems on the newer part of the course at the Cabinet View
Country Club."

October 28, 2005. "Behe
Disproves Irreducible Complexity" is the title of an article
recommended by Bill Rozell. Ed, who evaluates Behe's testimony in the
Dover trial, comments on Behe's responses to cross-examination from Mr.
Rothschild regarding Behe's paper (with David Snoke) "Simulating Evolution
by Gene Duplication of Protein Feature that Requires Multiple Amino Acid
Residues":

In other words, even under the most absurd and
other-worldly assumptions to make it as hard as possible, even while
ruling out the most powerful sources of genetic variation, an irreducibly
complex new trait requiring multiple unselected mutations can evolve
within 20,000 years. And if you use more realistic population figures, in
considerably less time than that. It sounds to me like this is a heck of
an argument against irreducible complexity, not for it.

The paper in question is one that William Dembski
declared "may well be the nail in the coffin [and] the crumbling of
the Berlin wall of Darwinian evolution."

So much for prophecy by pious frauds who mislead the
faithful into thinking intelligent design is new, scientific, and
contrary to evolution, when it is an old philosophical argument
that can be reasonably accommodated to the scientific theory of natural
selection.

September 15, 2005. The
lawsuit against the Dover Area School Board for requiring biology teachers
to present "intelligent design" as an alternative to the scientific theory
of evolution will move forward. U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III
denied Dover's request for summary judgment to throw out the case filed
against the district by 11 parents over the intelligent design
requirement.

The trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 26 in
Harrisburg federal court.

In other court action, a federal judge
declared the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance with the words "under
God" in public schools unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton ruled that the
pledge's reference to one nation "under God" violates schoolchildren's right
to be "free from a coercive requirement to affirm God." Karlton said he was
bound by precedent of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which in 2002
ruled in favor of Michael Newdow that the pledge is unconstitutional
when recited in public schools.

Today, like any day, is also a good day to reflect
on how quickly lives can be turned around by forces great and small over
which we have no control. We're all aware of what Hurricane Katrina has wrought.
Every day, countless others have their lives irreversibly altered as well.
Last Friday, I opened up iTunes to download the latest
Skepticality program and
found a short message from co-host Swoopy. Derek Colanduno complained of a
headache, got very ill, and was rushed to the hospital where it was
determined that there was bleeding in his brain. His prognosis is
uncertain.

For those of you who don't know of Derek, he
co-hosts Skepticality, a podcast devoted to reality-based programming. For
those who want their science and thinking straight, rather than diluted by
appeals to faith, wishful thinking, and other assorted cognitive
illusions, Skepticality is for you. Obviously, the show will be on hiatus
until the full extent of Derek's condition is known, which may not be for
several weeks. If good will could cure, Derek would be back broadcasting
tonight. Swoopy has been keeping his many friends and admirers informed of
Derek's condition on their
website.

Every year since 1982, Australian Skeptics has
awarded the prestigious Bent Spoon Trophy to the organisation or person
who has been deemed to have been the "perpetrator of the most preposterous
piece of paranormal or pseudoscientific piffle" in Australia during the
preceding twelve months

As this award was designed to rival the Nobels, the
Miles Franklins, the Oscars and the Ernies in its impact on public
awareness, hardly any expense was spared in the construction of the
trophy. A piece of timber, which we had no reason to doubt was an off cut
of gopher wood from the Ark construction site, was polished to a high
gloss and thereupon was affixed a spoon, which, rumour suggests, may have
been used at the Last Supper. The spoon, having been tastefully bent into
a graceful curve, by energies that are, we suspect, unknown to science, is
plated with gold by means of a deposition process long thought lost with
the submergence of Atlantis.

Previous winners have included Jasmuheen, the lady
who lives only on light, the Complementary Healthcare Council of
Australia, Australia's best-ever touring car driver, Peter Brock, the
producers of the ABC television series "The New Inventors", and journalist
Mike Willessee (the only person to be honoured with both a Bent Spoon
Award and a Skeptical Journalism prize, although not in the same year).

In 2005, Australian Skeptics is both proud and
saddened to announce that the winner is yet another ABC television series,
Second Opinion. Each week this show presents an uncritical (and even
encouraging) look at an aspect of alternative medicine, usually at the
less scientific and more quacky end of the spectrum. It is significant to
note that the program received the highest number of Bent Spoon
nominations since the award was instigated.

As is the usual practice, the winners have been
notified by telepathy and are invited to collect their trophy by
paranormal means.

August 29, 2005. Think
it's possible to teleport a human being like they do on Star Trek?

the computing-encoding of the entire contents of a
human body would require 10 to the 28th (the number one followed by 28
zeroes) kilobytes of computer storage capacity. It would take 100
quintillion of the world's best commercially available hard drives "to
store the encoded information of just one human being."

Also, "it will take more than 2,400 times the
present age of the universe (about 13 billion years) to access this
amount of data" from the computers ... "to heat up and dematerialize one
human being would require . .. the energy equivalent of 330 one-megaton
thermonuclear bombs."

August 15, 2005.
A company called
Authentic Entertainment is making a film about the life of
Edgar Cayce for the
History Channel. The working title is "The Other
Nostradamus." Sounds authentic to me.
Stuart Chait, a producer of the program, said the film "will examine the
effects of Cayce's work on history." Does that mean he will examine the
effect of Cayce on gullibility and the increasing retreat into
irrationality and magical thinking that beguiles our age?

Mr. Chait should consider doing a program on Emma
King. He could call it "The Other Jon Edward" and he could examine the
effects of King on history. Emma King is from Glenrothes in Fife,
Scotland. She calls herself "one of the United Kingdom's most gifted
psychicmediums."
(What other kind of medium is there?)

King is the president of the Scottish Psychic and
Medium Society. For such an eminent psychic there is precious little
information about her on the Internet. I found a post from
The Skeptic (UK) Digest that mentions King and claims that it costs
£544 ($983) to take her psychic development course. It seems she's offered
her psychic course in Glasgow, Dunfermline, and Edinburgh. According to
The Scotsman, King is a 50 year-old mother of four and fishes
competitively for Scotland.